A Breath Of Fresh Air
by mlcddt
Summary: When Trinity stumbled across Hershel's farm she thought it was a god sent, but an unexpected group shows up and turns her world upside down. Will the unexpected feelings for one redneck compel her to leave the farm of stay? daryl/oc
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one

The sun beat down causing a trickle of sweat to run down Trinity's neck. It was just after midday and trinity was walking the fence of Hershel's farm as she did every day, fitness was a big thing for her. Especially now that dead people roamed the earth, it was of high importance for your stamina to be up to standard. Trinity stumbled across Hershel's farm just over a month ago. Her car broke down in the small town a couple miles away from Hershel's farm when she met Maggie. Maggie was unsure of trinity at first, she looked too dangerous. She was stood at 5'5, she was wearing fitting jeans with leather boots up to her shins, and she had a bloodied elbow length black shirt. When Maggie first saw her, trinity had her katana held out proudly in front of her; she had two machetes strapped to each hip and small hand gun in the top of her boot. Her hair was blonde and choppy, barely reaching her shoulders; she wore a hat on top of her head that reminded Maggie of Michael Jackson. When trinity saved Maggie from near death from a zombie, Maggie decided to bring her back to the farm as she would help protect them from the outside world.

* * *

It was nearing the afternoon when trinity made her way back to the house; she walked inside as Maggie rushed past nearly flinging her into the wall. Trinity could hear sobbing and talking, she followed the sounds into the spare room. There was a small boy bleeding out onto the white sheets, with a man that she assumed was his father held the boys hand while crying.

"What's going on Hershel?" Trinity rushed over to the boys side and checking him over.

"The boy was shot"

"By one of your men" the stranger sitting across from her looked up to her. She could see so many emotions flash through his eyes: Fear, sadness and anger. She looked at him a while longer before it clicked.

"One of our men? Do you mean Otis? No, no way. He would not have done that" she said staring at the man, anger beginning to bubble in her veins. Trinity had grown quite fond of Otis over this past month; he was a kind man that wouldn't hurt anyone. He had gone hunting with her on several occasions.

"it was an accident trinity, I need you to do me a favour, go get Maggie and tell her to find Rick's family and bring his wife back to the farm, tell her they are held up in that traffic snarl" Hershel spoke in such a calm manner, he always had a way of working through things with a level head. Trinity sighed and raised her hands signifying defeat. She found Maggie in the kitchen making the man now known as Rick a glass of orange juice. Trinity explained the orders given from Hershel to Maggie and felt a ping of pain as she thought of Maggie out there alone.

"Maybe I should come with you, you know. It could be dangerous out there" trinity rubbed the back of her neck while staring at the ground, she hated showing emotion to anyone, but over the weeks she spent with Hershel's little family she felt herself growing fond of each and every one of them, though she would never let them know. She usually chose the grumpy approach.

"I'll be fine; I'll take one of the horses. I'll be back before you know it." she touched trinity's shoulder and stared at her.

"I'll be back soon"

With that Maggie made her way around trinity and left the building. Trinity made her way into the spare room where the boy was.

"Can I help with anything Hershel?"

"The best help you can be is if you stay out of the way for a bit, I can't be distracted. This boy is in serious danger and I'm afraid I don't have the equipment I need"

Trinity was a little taken back by what Hershel said, her mouth hung wide for a second before she quickly composed herself.

"Fine, I'm going hunting. I'll be back later"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N -Sorry the chapters are really short at the moment, but once i get into the story they're going to grow. I hope Ya'll enjoy this story as i enjoy writting it. **

It was after dark before Trinity made her way back to the farm, she spotted a new car parked outside the house. She dropped her bow in her tent, Trinity had decided to stay in a tent outside the house because she didn't want to wear out her welcome, not to mention she also liked the peace and quiet, she was never a fan of large groups even before the world ended she would mostly hang around by herself and avoid human contact at all costs.

As Trinity was making her way up the stairs of the farm house she spotted a young Asian man sitting on a chair that was a little round the corner of the veranda. She decided to get some information out of the man while she had the chance. She stepped quietly towards him a skill she learnt through her years of hunting. As she was making her way towards the man a floor board creaked.

"Shit" The Asian man threw his head up and stared at her, almost shaking from the unexpected person standing a few feet away from him.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I'm trinity. A... uh friend of Hershel's."

"No, it's okay, guess I'm still a bit jumpy from today's adventures. I'm Glenn. T-dog and I came up here a little while ago. We're friends of Rick's, we're in his group. We still have 4 people on the highway, carol one of the woman her daughter is lost in the woods, and they're waiting there for her, and uh Shane just got back from the high school"

"High school? Why did he go to the high school?" panic hit Trinity like a massive wave. She had gone past the high school a few weeks ago, it was completely overrun and was impenetrable.

"They needed some supplies for Carl, said he couldn't make it unless they had them. So Shane and Otis headed in town, but sadly Otis didn't make it back" Glenn put his head down in shame, if Trinity said she was a friend of Hershel's then of course she would have known Otis.

"Otis… Otis didn't come back?" Trinity shook her head as if to shake the words out of her mind. She couldn't believe Otis would risk his life for a kid he didn't even know. How could he do this to Patricia? Glenn shook his head with the most apologetic look her could muster up. With that Trinity turned away from Glenn and made her way towards the door. The conversation didn't go as Trinity originally planned, she was meant to get information about their group not information that one of her own had died.

As trinity made her way inside there was an African-American man sitting at the table, he was holding his arm with a look of pain shooting across his face.

"I'm Trinity, what happened to your arm? You weren't bit were you?" Trinity asked as she pulled a chair out and sat beside the man.

"No ma'am. Was caught up in some traffic today and a herd of walkers decided to come on through, cut my arm on a car. Pretty nasty stuff, lucky the son-of-a-bitch redneck was there to save me though."

"Sure does sound like a charmer. Has Hershel or Patricia stitched it up for you?"

"yeah, the old man made me good as new"

With a quick nod Trinity stood up and made her way to the spare room where Hershel had just finished operating on the boy. There was a new woman in the room now. She introduced herself as Lori. She was Carl's mum and Rick's wife. After the events of today and an unsuccessful hunt Trinity said goodnight to Hershel and his family and also to the new guests. She was set for a good night sleep and maybe even a sleep in if luck was on her side.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N - Thank you for the reviews! ahh. So lovely. So i decided to post a new chapter. They're finally going to meet! yay. Hope you enjoy. Another new chapter should be out tonight or tomorrow. **

Morning came too quickly that day, Trinity had hardly slept, she tossed and turned with nightmares for most of the night. It was about six o'clock when Trinity decided to give up on sleeping and go for a jog, she groggily stood up from her sleeping bag and put on some short denim shorts and a plaid shirt. She grabbed her raybans and a machete before she left her tent. When she exited she looked around to see tents put up all around an RV. To her relief they stayed a few meters away from where she had set up her tent. She didn't know these people but she was already missing the peace she had when she was out here alone.

As Trinity was on her daily walk she decided to go to the little waterfall she had found once when she was out hunting. It was a hot day and there was no escaping the heat. As she made her way through the dense forest there was no sounds, no animals and no walkers. She considered this a good thing. When she found the waterfall the water was flowing and crystal clear, birds were chirping and she couldn't help but feel like this was just an ordinary day from before the world went to shit. Without hesitation Trinity removed her shirt revealing her plain black bra and then removed her pants to also reveal laced black panties. She climbed up to a rock a couple meters high and jumped letting out a school-girl squeal of excitement before she hit the water. The coolness of the water soothed her lightly sunburnt skin. She swam around a while before her enjoyment was short lived. A bush a few feet away from the water edge moved. She got out of the water and grabbed her machete bracing herself for what was going to emerge from the bush. She was about to swing when a tall man emerged. He had jeans with a plaid shirt with its arms torn off. His blue eyes stared at me before skimming her body. Trinity immediately felt embarrassed and self-conscious.

"What the heck are you doing out here?" the man said while staring at Trinity curiously.

"What does it look like I'm doing? Who the hell are you anyways?"

"Names Daryl. I'm with Rick's group"

"Well Daryl. Why the hell are you so far from the dang house?" Trinity stared at him taking in all his features. He was toned, he had some scruff on his chin and he looked dirty as hell. Behind the grime he would have been a gorgeous man. She shook the thoughts from my head and cleared her throat waiting for his answer.

"Well little girl I'm out here hunting, you know. Man things."

Trinity gasped. _He did not just say that. _It took a lot for her not to slam her slender clenched fist into his beautiful face. She composed herself and smiled at him.

"well I'll let you know Daryl, I've been doing the hunting for my group for a whole month now, and hunting for my family years before that, so don't try act high and mighty when you're at the same level as me sweetheart."

Daryl scoffed, there was no may in hell this tiny girl could hunt, she looked as though she would never get her hands dirty let alone kill an animal. Her light green eyes burned into Daryl as she tried to suss him out. She was a pretty girl, nothing like Daryl has ever seen before. Sure he'd seen plenty of women in his day, and had hooked up with a few during his and Merle's drunken nights, but he's never seen a girl with such natural beauty, it looked like the end of the world had no toll on her.

"Ain't right to be out her by yourself" Daryl spat at her.

"Well for your information, I can look after myself, I have been for a long time" Trinity hurried to put her pants on before she started to walk away.

"Hey, what's your name?" Daryl yelled after her.

"Trinity" she looked back at him and he stopped in his track, their eyes met for brief second before she took a deep breath and scurried off.

* * *

Later that night Trinity was sitting outside her tent sharpening her hunting knife when an old man came up to her.

"My names Dale, our group was just getting ready to eat if you'd like to join us"

Trinity was unsure. This was the first time she would have been around the group and she didn't want them to think she was useless and couldn't make her own food, but she thought back to her unsuccessful hunting for the past couple days and she was famished.

"Hi, I'm Trinity. Are you sure that's okay? I don't want to be taken food from another person's mouth"

"No dear, I'm inviting you on behalf of everyone, you were here before us, and we've set up camp mighty close to you. It's the least we can do" he replied.

Trinity smiled and stood up and made her way over to the group that was now gathered around small campfire. She took a seat beside dale and a young blonde haired woman. She became acquainted with the group and even joined in on some conversation. As the night went on most of the group parted ways and went to bed. Dale was sitting on top of the RV whistling a tune to himself. Trinity was now alone enjoying the heat radiating from the camp fire. She felt good, now that there was another group she didn't have to worry about late night watching over the farm. She felt somewhat safer. Not missing her opportunity she went to her tent and grabbed a bottle of Canadian club that she kept stashed away for when she needed it. She returned to the campfire and got comfy on the ground. She took a few chugs of the drink and stared into the flames. The flickering of the fire hypnotized her so she didn't hear the footsteps approaching her until the man was sitting a few feet away from her. She snapped her head up and jumped a little.

"Hey, don't worry just me. Wondering if you were going to be a good host and share some of that"

Trinity looked at the yellow from the flames dancing on Daryl's face. She wasn't sure if it was the alcohol or just her, but he looked so magical in the light. She hadn't realised she was staring at him for that long until he waved his hand in front of her face.

"Hello, can I have some?"

"Oh, uh yeah sure here" Trinity handed him the drink and watched him take a few mouthfuls before handing it back.

"So uh, you hunt huh? Who taught you that?" Daryl asked reaching for the bottle.

"Well, I use to live on a farm. My daddy and ma didn't earn much, so we lived of the land pretty much. My neighbour took me with him one day, and then it was pretty much an everyday thing" Trinity shrugged and took another mouth full.

"How did you end up here?" Daryl asked while fidgeting with one of his button on his shirt.

"Ran into Maggie when my car broke down in town, saved her ass and then she brought me here" Trinity replied.

Daryl shrugged and continued drinking; Trinity and Daryl would occasionally exchange a few words but it wasn't until Trinity was on her second bottle that she started feeling normal and not nervous around him. She would talk and make a fool of herself and Daryl would mostly just laugh at her and answer her questions when it was necessary. She began to open up and moved a little closer to Daryl. She sat on her knees in front of him and raised her hands ready to talk.

"Di… did you know… that (giggle) when I was in high school"

She stopped talking to regain her balance, his hand slid up grabbing her arm in reflex.

"When I was in high school I use to date guys like you… all handsome and rough" she giggled and fell on her back, she looked up at the stars and giggled to herself.

"Okay princess light weight, time for some bed" Daryl stood up and dusted his hands on his jeans before grabbing her hands and pulling her up. She walked a few steps before stumbling. Daryl reached out and grabbed her waist and lifted her on his shoulder.

"Excuse me Mr, don't man handle me" Trinity tried wriggling out of his grasp and giggled at her defeat.

Daryl took her to her tent and laid her down on her makeshift bed. Trinity fell asleep straight away. Daryl stood up to leave and looked around her tent. She had a sword, machetes, bow and arrow and knives. He laughed to himself. How could this girl making little noises in her sleep, be able to handle weapons such as these? Trinity sighed in her sleep and shifted a little. Daryl took his cue to leave and made his way back to his tent. He was utterly confused by this girl. He lay down and fell asleep with the sound of her drunken giggling in his mind.


	4. Chapter 4

**a/n - Oh my god, sorry guys, i know i promised this chapter ages ago, but life kinda just got in the way and some writers block. Though, i'm back and ready to start getting my fanfic on. :D it's pretty slow, but i'm going to start getting to the good stuff real soon! it's really chopy and all, but yeah. enjoy. review, follow all that jazz. 3**

Streams of sunlight poured into Trinity's tent, she stirred with a groan. She mentally cursed herself for not taking it easy with her liquor considering she didn't remember past opening her second bottle. She sat up groggily and rubbed her temples trying to adjust to the little amount of sunlight in her tent, she dreaded opening up the flap to full blown brightness of the suns harsh rays.

She pulled herself from her cot and rummaged through her items to find clean clothes (as clean as clothes can be in a zombie apocalypse). She settled for a tight fit denim jeans and a "Kiss" shirt. She opened up her tent and stepped into the waiting world; she stretched out all the kinks in her back and yawned. The aroma of eggs wafted past her nose, she inhaled deeply and a slight smile appeared across her face.

"Nothing like eggs to cure a hangover" Trinity said to herself as she made her way over to Carol who was sat beside a camp fire cooking the camps breakfast.

"Good morning" Carol greeted her thinly.

"Well, its morning, don't know how good it is though" Trinity said with another yawn.

Trinity sat down next to Dale and ate her eggs, while most of the group was engaged in conversation Trinity took the time to analyse each member. Trinity was always good at reading people, she could tell their personality by the way they acted and their body language. Of course, this group was no different. They were sheep following their Shepard's, which she assumed were Shane and Rick. She could almost guarantee if any of the group were to leave they wouldn't make it, besides maybe Daryl. As soon as she thought of him memories of the previous night started to flood back into Trinity's mind. Trinity inwardly groaned as she remembered giggling at everything and the boyfriend thing. _Oh the boyfriend thing, great. _She thought to herself. Her embarrassment overruled her hunger and her apatite was gone. She thanked Carol for breakfast and excused herself to her tent.

A few hours later everyone gathered around Otis' grave. Trinity hung towards the back of the group, not wanting to show emotion in front of everyone. Her heart felt tight, a lump forming in the back of her throat as tears pricked in her eyes, her breathing becoming laboured. _Hold it together, don't do this. You didn't even know him s_he repeated over and over in her head. The truth was Trinity was finding herself becoming attached to Hershel and his family. She found herself becoming protective and caring, no matter how much she tried to convince herself that these people meant no significance to her, she couldn't shove the feelings down. Hershel asked Shane to say a few words about Otis, since he was the last one to see him alive. Trinity could hear the pain in Shane's voice. She lifted her head to see his face. At first glance he looked devastated, like he could burst into tears at any given moment, but Trinity looked harder, she stared into his eyes. Nothing. They were dark, like a bottomless pit. No pity, no sorrow. He was not speaking with hurt, he had survivor's guilt. It suddenly dawned on Trinity, Shane returned with Otis' gun and then went on saying that Otis had told him to go ahead and he would cover Shane. Darkness was devouring Shane's soul, Trinity could see it in his eyes, and all he had left was instinct. She couldn't take anymore of listening to his lies; she turned to walk off and ran into something hard. She looked up to see Daryl glaring at her; she sent him a glare back and walked towards the woods.

Trinity returned to farm just before the sun set, she had a string of seven squirrels tied around her waist. She dropped the game at her tent and walked over to the wooden fence. She sat herself on the top of the fence. It had been a while since she got to sit down and watch the sunset without having to look over her shoulder every minute to check for threats. She rolled her neck trying to work out any knots. The sky danced with variety of colours. It reminded her of the camp fire and looking at Daryl. The world may have ended and was filled with ugly, but the sunset reminded her of better days and gave her hope for a future. There was still beauty in this world, from the kind hearts from some of the people on this farm, to the ocean of orange dancing in the sky. She felt the fence jolt underneath her and she instinctively grabbed for her machete. She braced herself for a slaughter only to find Daryl sitting on the fence beside her.

"Don't cut my head off, just wanted to sit" he spoke gruffly while looking down at his fidgeting fingers.

"Do you really think it's safe to be sneaking up on people in an apocalypse?" she questions, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Gotta keep all you pansy's on ya toes" he shrugged.

Trinity let out a half-hearted laugh and continued to watch the sunset. They sat in a comfortable silence. When the sunset was over and the fields were a curtain of black trinity swung her legs over the fence and jumped to the ground making a beeline towards her tent.

When Trinity reached her tent she collapsed onto her cot, letting out quiet sobs, she hated herself for letting the past days get to her. She missed being on her own, not having to deal with other people's deaths, she missed not having to feel anything. She hated that these people were starting to make her feel again. She had spent most of her life content with being numb to emotion. She learnt to shut it off, or push it down at an early age when her dad would beat her for letting out the slightest sob. She cried for herself, for her fucked up childhood. She cried for few friends she had that were probably dead and she cried because she was pissed at the fact she was in her tent drowning in self-pity. She wiped her eyes and took deeps breath to calm her rapidly beating heart when she heard someone clear their throat outside her tent.

"knock, knock" Dale said from outside the tent.

Trinity unzipped the opening and poked her head out ready to bite Dale's head off, but she looked down and seen he was holding a plate of food and a beer. _I love you old man._ She smiled and took the food and beer off him and made her way out of the tent to take a seat just outside the opening. Dale sat down beside her staring off into the distance trying to think of something to say that wouldn't upset her further or get him stabbed.

"You have no idea how grateful we are for letting us stay here. The worlds a horrible place, it's not easy to trust people and it's not easy to let people in" Dale said while still looking off into the distance. Trinity swallowed her food and took a sip from her beer.

"Doesn't sound much different to the world before this, People were greedy, bloodthirsty and I'm sure there were some cannibals out there" she laughed to herself. Dale looked at her and sighed.

"I see the world so much more clearly now. I see how beautiful everything is and I regret that I took it for granted." He sighed again and put a hand on Trinity's arm.

"Tomorrow we are splitting up in groups to search for Sophia, the group was wondering if you would like to help us? You have magnificent skills and would be of great value, plus we would feel a lot safer if we had you looking out for us. Let's face it, we may think we're badasses but most of us are as dumb as nails when it comes to being safe" he smiled at Trinity as he rose to his feet and walked off back to his camp. Trinity sighed; she didn't want to get involved, not again. She couldn't afford to get attached. She looked over to the group that sat around the fire smiling and laughing. _Old man is right, these people are as dumb as nails, sitting around laughing like dead people are roaming the earth just waiting for a meal. _She shook her head and turned in for the night. She was going to help that little girl, no one deserves to be left behind.


	5. Chapter 5

The group gathered around the hood of a car getting designated areas mapped out for them. They would be splitting up into groups to search for the missing girl Sophia. Unfortunately for Daryl, Rick had paired him with Trinity.

"You got to be fucking kidding me? I have to go with her?" Daryl spat at Rick. It wasn't anything personal, Daryl had no problems with the girl, except for the fact he couldn't get her out of his head since that night around the campfire. To be honest he couldn't stop thinking about her since he saw her swimming. Not to mention today she was wearing the tightest clothes that clung to every curve of her body, he wouldn't be able to last five minutes without going off to la-la land and thinking unholy thoughts.

"What, you think 'cause I'm a girl I won't be good out there? Sexiest pig" trinity raised her voice. She was just as good as half the men were, if not better. Usually she would walk away and let him go by himself but in this case she wanted to be there, to annoy him and show him how good she was. She was out in the woods for months by herself and she wasn't bitten or dead and that counted for something.

"You'll be right you big baby" she laughed and started fastening the holsters around her thighs for her knives to sit in. when she was done she looked up to find Daryl staring at her. She picked up a rock and threw it at him. He was caught off guard, too busy staring at her body to realise what was happening. Lucky for him, she had shit aim and missed his arm by about an inch.

"If you're done staring, I'd like to find this little girl" Trinity winked at him and walked towards the woods, shoulder barging him on her way.

* * *

They had been beating the bush for two hours before Trinity started to grow tired of the silence. Daryl was a few steps ahead of her and most of the day had been spent looking at his backside rather than keeping an eye out for potential threats. For a smart mouthed, sexist and short-tempered redneck he had a god-like body. Trinity couldn't help but stare when she saw him around camp carrying things; the way his biceps would tense, in turn defining them more than usual as he repositioned his bow. Or when she would get a glimpse of his toned back as he lifted something from the ground. _Oh my god snap out of it Trinity, you're out here to find a little girl, not get laid. _She rolled her eyes to herself and continued behind him.

They came across a farm house, and looked at each other as if to ask what they should do. They both shrugged and walked towards the run down house. They raised their weapons readying themselves for what was waiting beyond the wooden door. He reached a hand trying the door handle. The door opened easily with a creak. He eased into the house slowly checking the room immediately to his left. Trinity was one step behind him giving the outside one last look before closing the door quietly. They checked all the rooms on the lower level before carefully ascending the stairs, backs against the wall. They had cleared all the rooms except one. They braced themselves on either side of the door weapons raised. He leaned forward and swung the door open in front of him giving a clear view of the room. Satisfied there were no threats in the room, they entered looking at their surroundings. It was like every other room of the house. Minimal furniture, which even then looked unusable because it was worn and tattered that much. The wallpaper was ripped and faded showing the wooden boards beneath it. There was a steel rusted bed frame with no mattress, wires sticking out in every direction. Moving further into the room, Trinity made her way to one of the old bedside tables. Opening a draw she found a bible, the pages turned yellow from age. Flicking through, she set it down and continued pooling over the contents. As she was examining an old comb she heard Daryl mumble from the other side of the bed. Thinking it was something she did she looked up and saw Daryl holding a pink cylinder looking object. He examined it from every angle, it wobbling slightly in his hand. Curious herself she looked at it closer and was suddenly overcome with laughter. She clutched at her sides, tears pooling at her eyes, from laughing so hard. Daryl looked at her confused, and then looked back to the object. His eyes widened with shock and he immediately dropped it away from him with disgust. The sex toy bounced as it hit the floor, rolling under the bed. Trinity laughed even harder at the still mask of shock on his face. Blinking out of his daze, he looked over at trinity who was still doubled over in laughter. A smile pulled at his lips as he watched on in fascination. She was in one of her rare carefree states, making him forget that the world was overrun by dead people trying to eat them. He chuckled to himself, as he reached over grabbing a box and hurled it at her. She blocked it with her arms laughing harder as it reflected off dropping to the floor. Bending down to pick it up and throw back at him, she read the label.

"Extra-large hey? Being a bit modest aren't we?" She laughed at his confused expression, throwing the box back at him. He caught it with both hands and looked at the box. He groaned looking at the box of condoms, 'EXTRA LARGE' written across the top in bold letters.

"Couldn't handle me anyways," he muttered under his breath embarrassed. He moved over to the window, separating the curtains. He inhaled sharply as he saw the oncoming crowd of walkers. The smell of decaying flesh filled his nose, and he cussed in disgust. On the other side of the bed Trinity noticed the change in his posture, and tensed, her muscles ready.

"What is it?" She asked seriously.

"Walkers. Lots of 'em," he replied moving to her side of the bed protectively. Daryl saw her turn her nose up inhaling. She could smell them too. "Quick get down on the floor and hide." She looked at him a few seconds more hating him telling her what to do but she reluctantly dropped to the floor. Daryl inched his way back to the window sill keeping an eye on the walkers wandering slowly past. Lucky for them they didn't enter the house. It took forever for them to get by, and felt like hours before the back of the group started to disperse. As the last of them were walking past, he felt something behind him. Whipping his head around expecting to see some sort of threat, he was instead met with two green eyes staring back at him. He silently swore in his head.

"Don't you ever do as your told women!" he quietly scolded her.

"Thought you might need a second pair of eyes old man," trinity retorted. She looked passed him out the window, eyes watching the walkers intently. Knowing it was a waste of his time to argue with her, he turned back and watched on with her. Once they were a fair ways away, he leant against the wall and exhaled. _Thank-god they didn't decide to have a look inside, _he thought to himself, closing his eyes as the adrenaline wore off. He'd seen walkers in groups before but nothing of that scale.

By the time he re-opened his eyes, the sun was slowly sinking in the sky as dusk was approaching. Though light was still out, the eerie mood made it feel darker then it was. Daryl looked over to Trinity who was patiently seated beside him, looking at the far wall. He couldn't help but noticed how her eyes sparkled emerald in the setting suns light. Her body was relaxed, her chest rising and falling steadily. His racing heart and quick breathing slowed, matching the same rhythm as hers. _How did she have such an effect on me? _He wondered, looking on in fascination. He hadn't even realised she was saying something until she tapped him lightly on the side of his leg.

He blinked out of his daydream, "Sorry what?"

"I said, we should probably head out and find the others before dark," she repeated looking up at him through her thick lashes. _Oh god, that look. _It took his breath away. He suddenly realised what she said.

"Seriously? Did you not just see half the world's population walk past?" he asked exasperated. Trinity looked at him puzzled.

"I'm not the one with eye sight problems Daryl, I'm not blind. Shouldn't this make us want to find the others as soon as possible anyway?" _Why was he chucking such a hissy fit? Surely if the others were in danger he would want to go find them to make sure they're safe, _she thought much to her annoyance.

"Trinity are you listening to yourself? You don't want to be caught outside in the dark," Daryl lectured, "especially when there's a large group of walkers out there. If we start wondering around, who knows where they might be. Hell! They could have circled back and might stalk us if we leave. Trust me heading out now would be the worst thing to do. We need to wait out until morning. The others will be fine, trust me…" he tried reassuring her. As much as she hated to admit it, Daryl was right. She sighed defeated.

"Since when have you been the brains of the group? When I first met you I was like "_Who the fuck is the idiot having' a perve_"," she laughed. He scoffed, feigning hurt, but even then she could see the humour behind his façade.

"You have a dirty mouth for a little girl," Daryl said raising an eyebrow, challengingly.

She looked up at him, fluttering her eyelids innocently, "Me? Never," she said faking shock.

"Yeah, yeah Princess. I bet daddy would be proud hearing that come out of your mouth." Trinity's smile faltered. Her brow furrowed in thought. Daryl looked at her confused still half laughing. _If only that's how it was back then,_ Trinity thought ,_There was nothing more that I wanted then to be daddy's little girl and for him to be proud of me. I never had that closure growing up, I never felt good enough but what made it worse is that I never realised why. Why did he love my sister more than me? Why did he hurt me and not her? I tried so hard, and yet it was never enough. _

"What?" Daryl had stopped laughing completely, now looking at her with concern. Was it something he said?

"Nothing, it's just…" she started. He looked at her reassuringly as he stepped forward.

"What is it?" he prompted.

"Nothing, don't worry about it. Forget I said anything," and with that, she turned on her heel and strode out of the room leaving him alone in the middle of the room confused.


End file.
